Last Saturday afternoon I visited Utrecht to do some street photography when I saw a group of women having a bachelorette party. They had dressed up the bachelorette as a bright-red strawberry and were clearly having fun.

I was experimenting with flash street photography and took a picture of the bachelorette. Loud laughter arose when my flash fired. I resumed my course and walked the streets of Utrecht.

Some time later I bumped into the partying group again and raised my camera as to pretend taking a picture, after which I walked on.

But Strawberry Bachelorette called me back. She said, “Oh no..! You took my picture, so now you’ve got to help me fulfil a challenge!” “She’s got a point, there”, I thought.
I asked her what the challenge was and she replied that she had to get a man sing her a love song. I had feared that it would be something like that.

I tried and tried coming up with a love song, but no song came to mind that I knew the lyrics of. I never listen to lyrics anyway. So her friends started giving me suggestions. “That Celine Dion song from The Titanic” – “Sorry, I don’t know the lyrics” – “That song from Replay” – “Sorry, never heard of”….. and a lot of other suggestions of which I didn’t know the lyrics or had never heard of.

It felt increasingly awkward. I really wanted to help her out, but it looked like as if I was trying to duck out of it.

And then it came to me. Yes! One love song came to mind that I knew the lyrics of, for the whole required 10 seconds. (Yes, you’re reading that correctly, 10 seconds). I’m not proud of it. Actually, I’m a bit ashamed of it, but the love song that came to mind was ‘Ik Hou Van Jou’ (I love you) by Gordon.

Sometime in the distant past a couple of lines of ‘Ik Hou Van Jou’ had nested into my brain. Just enough to last for ten seconds.

I sang the lines to Strawberry Bachelorette with hand gestures and all and her friends were satisfied. She still had to fulfil a lot of challenges, but she did have her sweet revenge on that audacious street photographer.